Toy Hiding

Busy's really been into cooking so we decided for his 3rd birthday to buy him a play kitchen. It was surprisingly pretty easy to find a gender neutral kitchen. So I ordered it online with the confirmation email saying it'd be delivered next Thurs/Fri. Which was perfect, because his party is on Sat.

I came home today to find the Step 2 Play kitchen I ordered for Busy teetering on the edge of my porch. How the Fed Ex guy managed to throw a 4'x3' box so it barely made it to my porch is beyond me. I wasn't expecting it until next week, so I thought I had plenty of time to devote to where to stash it.  My plans were further complicated by rain so I had to think fast to get it inside to keep the box from getting any wetter.

Can you possibly imagine how hard it is to hide a toy kitchen from your almost 3 yr old until his birthday party? I managed to push it inside and slide it to the dining room.  It's not really heavy, just unwieldy - especially with half the box being wet from the rain. I thought maybe I could slide it under my desk and put a sheet over it. Wouldn't fit. My next thought was my husband's side of the bed. Better his than mine, right? Plus, his side is closer to the outside wall so I thought it might go unnoticed. No such luck, it wouldn't fit there either. Our house is about 1100 sq feet, and only 2 bedrooms, so I really don't have a good place to store this monstrosity. I thought maybe I could shove it up the attic stairs (where I hide everything else) but the box is too wide to go up very smoothly.

So, I was stuck with where I hide all my other presents, my closet. You know, the place where I can't find anything anyway, so who on earth would notice a 4'x3' box?  Except the box is bigger than my closet!! This 100 year old house only has 3 actual closets and they are TINY! We have a nice wall of Ikea storage to make up the difference but certainly not big enough to store a play kitchen. My closet actually only holds my shoes - it's a teeny tiny shoe closet.  I parked the box in front of my closet and draped a sheet over it. It's as tall as my dresser, so I'm hoping it will just look like an extension of the dresser. Do I really think my child is this stupid? No of course not, I have no idea how I'll keep it hidden. When you have a small house, there is really no such thing as an 'off limits' area.

And of course, now I can't get to my shoes. I plan on using this as an excuse to wear sneakers for the next 1-1/2 weeks until his birthday party. All I have to say is, Busy better love this kitchen!